Wireless Face Tracking Camera

July 7, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 11 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luy8jP1UNs]

A student team at University of Massachusetts have built this wireless face tracking camera system. Using a small 2-axis motorized camera meant to be mounted on model airplanes, an arduino, and some custom software, they can track faces and keep them in frame in real-time. This is pretty cool, but maybe not quite as groundbreaking as they make it sound. We think it is pretty awesome though. You can download the software and schematics on their site.

[via MakeZine]

Arduino Webserver

July 1, 2010 by Mike Szczys 69 Comments

The Arduino platform should be perfect for throwing together a lightweight webserver because of the availability of quality shields that take care of the hardware for you. As [Ovidiu Predescu] found, there are a few hiccups along the way and he’s put together a guide that covers the workarounds. Specifically, using an Ethernet shield and data logging shield at the same time produces a bus conflict which he sidesteps by cutting the CS pin trace on the data logging board and moving it to a different pin. There is also a bug with one of the chips on the Ethernet shield that is fixed using a similar method. So if you’re not just going to etch your own webserver hardware maybe this is the next best thing.

FPC Arduino

June 29, 2010 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

Seeed Studios has a new version of the Arduino that they’re calling the Seeeduino Film. Instead of the traditional fiberglass substrate they’ve used a resin material to produce a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC). In addition to its flexibility their aim with this prototype was to keep it modular. From what we can see each of the four squares is a different component in the Arduino system. The photo above has the USB interface on the nearest node, then the power regulator, the microprocessor, and finally the remaining peripheral connections. This material can easily be cut with a pair of scissors so the programming section can be removed once the firmware is burned to the chip. It will be interesting to see final pricing and package options. We wouldn’t mind having an FPC ATmega168 breakout board around, but specifially this would fit nicely in a watch band if you were building your own wristwatch.

[Thanks Juan]

Touchscreen Scooter Computer

June 28, 2010 by Mike Szczys 38 Comments

[Kurt’s] scooter computer started off as a way to use a couple of LEDs to show the battery charge on his hog. It was based on a Arduino and used a voltage divider to judge how much juice was left. But then he ran across a touch-screen OLED shield for the Arduino and the project started to take off. Now he’s got battery, temperature, real-time clock, and GPS running through the slick-looking display. It may not be a full-blown motorcycle but it gives the computer interfaces we’ve seen for other bikes a run for their money.

[Thanks Mowcius]

Talking Poker Timer

June 18, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 7 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8iIuPnXzm8]

This interesting box of buttons is a talking poker tournament timer. Full of useful tools like a binary time display, words of wisdom, countdowns to the end of the game, and even good old “bicycle built for two” mode (around 1:20). While we find it fairly difficult to understand, we applaud the feature list, especially the song. He used an Arduino with a voice shield, so there’s not much to the electronics side, but you can download his source code from his site.

[via Makezine]

Win At Hangman, Gain Entry

June 16, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

Do not put anything in this box that you will need in a rush. You’ll have to successfully guess the word in a game of hangman to gain entry. He’s using an Atmega328 as the brains of this project with a rotary dial and an LCD for input and display. If you win, the box is unlocked and you can open it up to get whatever is inside. There are links to various tutorials along the way to help with each step, including the Arduino source code he used to build it. We think he should bump it up a notch and have the box destroy the contents if you fail. Sounds like fun, right?

Android Meets Arduino

June 15, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 17 Comments

This new toolkit, called “Android” meets Arduino, allows you to connect an Arduino to your device and communicate back and forth. You could trigger external events at the Arduino end when an event happens on your phone, or even trigger things on your phone side when something happens at the Arduino. We can’t wait to see the stuff people come up with beyond simple notifiers.

[via littlebirdceo]